The Putney debates continue

Tristram Hunt's achievement in reawakening appreciation of the profound significance of the Putney debates is really something (A jewel of democracy, October 26); and let's hope that both the letter and the spirit of the debates will be revived.

But why does Hunt persist in being so sectarian and unhistorical by saying "the story of British democracy is intimately bound up with the theology of Protestant theology"? He is a historian after all. He definitely knows better. He makes a reference to the Magna Carta as the moment when "we began to play a pioneering role in the emergence of equality before the law, universal suffrage, an independent judiciary and freedom of speech". The Magna Carta was in 1215, when England was Catholic, over 300 years before Protestantism was a twinkle in its founders' eyes. It was in Catholic times that England got its parliamentary system, the jury system, habeas corpus, and the peasants' revolt.

If Tristram Hunt persists in being unable to acknowledge this, he might consult William Cobbett who on September 25 1826 wrote: "What I have written on the Protestant reformation has proceeded entirely from a sense of justice towards our calumniated Catholic forefathers, to whom we owe all those of our institutions that are worthy of our admiration and gratitude." St Mary's church itself was built in Catholic times; and it was Catholics who handed down to the Putney debaters the very Christian scriptures on which they based their arguments. Tristram Hunt speaks glowingly of the Putney church as being "progressively ecumenical". It's time he got into the spirit of the place.Michael KnowlesCongleton, Cheshire

Tristram Hunt undermines his credibility by making sideswipes at the non-religious in his otherwise excellent discussion of the Putney debates. It is a travesty to suggest that just because you are non-religious you are unable to accept the influence that the Reformation and the Enlightenment played in the development of ideas. Both Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins would accept that the development of religious liberty in the 17th and 18th centuries made a considerable contribution to our idea of modern liberty. Indeed, AC Grayling has pointed out in his book, Towards the Light, that religious liberty was a sort of stalking horse for a more general liberty of political thought and scientific enquiry.

Tristram Hunt needs to be more generous towards the secularist/humanist, pro-science viewpoint. His evident grumpiness about those who do not share his faith position will surely be counter-productive in the ongoing debate about our civil liberties.Christopher BornettBury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Tristram Hunt rightly celebrates the Putney debates. In Caryl Churchill's beautiful play, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, the debates are dramatised, and the play shows graphically what was and what was not allowed by Cromwell and the other grandees of the army. In her introduction to the play, Churchill notes that what was established was "an authoritarian parliament, the massacre of the Irish, the development of capitalism... The simple 'Cavaliers and Roundheads' history taught at school hides the complexity of the aims and conflicts of those to the left of parliament. We are told of a step forward to today's democracy but not of a revolution that did not happen; we are told of Charles and Cromwell but not of the thousands of men and women who tried to change their lives. Though nobody now expects Christ to make heaven on earth, their voices are surprisingly close to us." Still some way to go, then.Philip RobertsThurlstone, South Yorkshire

Sometimes I question my daily purchase of the Guardian and then articles like A jewel of democracy appear and all doubts are shed. A brilliant read attesting to a great English radical's observation that time does indeed change more minds than reason, but sadly all too slowly. In an age when mediocrity of thought is celebrated, it is a delight to feel the power of truly inspiring ideas that cannot be subdued across centuries.Dr Donald SimpsonNewton Aycliffe, Durham